The Perception of Moody Teenagers
by LinkBetweenWorlds
Summary: Camp Wawanakwa - A camp where drama unfolds. A camp where teenagers fought for a common goal - to win money. But, what if it all was more than that? A re-telling of the original Total Drama Island, with a more realistic approach. Rated T for mild swearing and teens being teens. [Warning: Two OCs included to change some plot elements in order to make the story stronger. Enjoy. C:]
1. Day 1 - Part 1

_**First-chapter author's note - please read. :)**_

_Title: A Perception of Moody Teenagers_

_Rated: T_

_Genre: Drama_

_Hello, guys! Please read this note, it would help you understand the concept of this tale. This is a story, obviously, but it's more of an in-depth take on Total Drama Island. Less for laughs, more on drama. It's basically a very detailed, more realistic take on the series._

_This story will include all of the original cast from the first story- no cut outs, no replacements. Everyone from the first season of the show. Including, Lyn and Drew. Two characters I decided to create for both plot reasons, and my own personal reasons. They are not the main characters of the series. They are important, but they will not take the spotlight off the canon characters that I will also be writing about._

_The story is more Gophers-centric rather than Bass-centric. However, the Bass will get their time to shine soon enough._

_Now that that's covered, I would like to thank you for checking out this story! Anyway, sorry for stalling. Enjoy yourselves._

* * *

Well, to put Lyn's experience on the island so far in fewer than three words, it **sucked.**

It had only been twenty-seven seconds. _Twenty seven._ She had totally expected to have seen a five star resort, a hot tub and a pool table. _Not dirt_. She had already seen horse flies when she first arrived, swarming around her baby blue suitcase, which matched the color of her shorts.

She let loose the deepest sigh of all as she scanned the unexpected area around her.

Lyn, to say the least, was a little bit unnerved at this predicament. To put it lightly.

"Katelyn, the local band geek. You're here. Pleasure to see you arrive!" A male, tenor-sounding voice echoed in her ears. "Sorry, but we're going to have to shorten your name to something else. There's another girl who has a similar name to you coming here. Don't wanna mess things up."

The chocolate haired girl merely shrugged in response.

Chris winked. Oh god.

To be polite, she plastered a sickly sweet smile on her face and held out her hand.

"Hey, Chris, nice to meet you!" Not so nice, actually. "I guess I can go by Lyn. Less confusing that way, you know?"

"Yes, that's fine by me."

His dazzling, movie-star-polished smile formed dimples on his face.

_'Typical fake celebrity with a godlike complex.'_

The middle aged man had directed her to trudge to the end of the dock. The dock was long, but there were only three other campers there. A girl with choppy black and blue hair who looked incredibly unimpressed, and a relatively average looking guy, kinda tall, rounded features, dark skinned.

There was also a petite girl, a little nerdy looking, but she had a smile on her face. She introduced herself as Beth, possibly shortened from Elizabeth. Lyn shook her hand reluctantly.

The band geek slowly slunk to the back of the group, and edged towards the left. She was tempted to whip out her notebook and write something, but she decided against it. She wanted to stare at her new rivals. She bit back a grin.

At least she could hear the birds chirping. Maybe she could go birdwatching on a free day. That would be kind of fun, at least. The water was also relatively clear, other than the beach being grimy. Oh well.

It took about three minutes until the next boat arrived. A short, medium-built male made his way out of the boat. His hair was so blonde, it was nearly white. Lyn's eyes widened at the sight of this boy. His name was Drew. The kid sat behind her in her English class at school- she had never spoken to him before, except for a few remarks in class.

"Everyone, our skater boy, Drew."

So, he skateboarded. Interesting- Chris seemed to be gathering teenagers of different High School stereotypes. Lyn would make sure to keep her eyes on these people.

Chris chuckled, a hint of the devil in his voice. Perfect. Drew held out his hand, which the host took.

"It's nice to meet you guys." He seemed not to happy to meet them.

Drew was always quiet- he scurried behind the others, sitting down, not wanting to be seen. He put his sandaled feet into the water. Lyn shrugged, not wanting to cause a scene about them knowing each other from school. She doubted that he cared.

After a few moments, the next boat arrived. A boy with a cowboy hat and beachy blond hair jumped out, his buttoned down pink top just screamed "party". His features were angular, but he was an attractive guy overall. He seemed nice enough.

"Here's Geoff! King of party."

"It's great to be here, man!"

"It's great to have you here, man!"

"So excited for the party to start, man!"

"Thanks, man."

The two began to try to out-man each other, which lasted much longer than what the other campers would have liked. Getting annoyed, Gwen shouted two words at them that caused Chris to wave Geoff off. Geoff smiled and shrugged.

The gothic-styled girl sighed loudly as he began to grab his bags, running a hand through her blue streaked hair. She slumped in place. "If they say man one more time, I'm gonna puke."

Lyn decided to make some conversation, by laughing softly, and whispering. "The intelligence of these campers so far, I swear."

The other girl smiled slightly, crossing her arms. "You at least seem sane."

"You too. I'm Lyn, what's your name?"

The goth girl furrowed her eyebrows, not expecting to be asked for her name so soon. She exhaled through her lightly freckled nose slightly, and uncrossed her arms, making eye contact. "My name's Gwen."

Lyn smiled, only to be interrupted by a very attractive female strutting off of the boat. Not too shabby. The blonde girl waved at the campers and to Chris, smiling. "Hi~!"

Her high-wattage smile came to a halt, as she pursed her lips and furrowed her brow. She tiled her head to the side, and folded her perfectly tanned arms in confusion.

"Okay, you look, _so_ familiar?"

Lyn wanted to throw herself off the dock to be eaten by a shark. The girl managed to stop herself.

"I'm Chris McLean." 'Dear God' he thought.

Silence.

...

"The host... of the show?" The now-irked host drawled.

An invisible lightbulb flashed above the girl's head, as her blue eyes widened. Ah yes, the art of realization.

"Ohhhh! So that's where I know you from!"

"Y-Yeah."

Chris decided to make this short and sweet. "Listen, Lindsay. We chose you because you're pretty, and nice to top that. Try not to mess up early on, okay?"

The blonde nodded, smiling.

_'What a bimbo.'_

The girl strutted to the group, and stood in front of it, playing with a strand of her hair. She didn't notice Beth trying to introduce herself, and kept looking around, the smile on her face staying.

The contestants saw someone climb out of the boat. She was tall, thin, pale, with jet black hair that reached her mid-back. Wearing nothing more than a sports-bra type shirt and revealing shorts, she seemed to want eyes on her.

She donned sunglasses, and she didn't look too impressed. Taking them off and scanning the area dramatically, she appeared to be of Asian decent. Her skin was paler though, which made them think she was of mixed blood.

"Heather. Welcome."

Heather was immediately taken aback by her surroundings, and she began to inwardly panic. "I'm calling my mother. I'm not staying here."

Chris sneered, with a smile on his face. "There's no reception here. You can't call them."

Heather let out a low sigh in defeat. The host was right, her cellular devices couldn't grasp anyone's attention, especially in this area. There was no cell phone tower in sight. She began to wonder why exactly she signed up for this show- defeated, she began to walk towards the group, only to be interrupted.

Beth gasped lightly and ran up to her, sticking out her hand and wanting her to shake it. She got up in her face. "Hi! Looks like we're your new friends for the next eight weeks!"

The rest of them could see the spit flying all over Heather's face. The latter grimaced, trying to get away from Beth as quickly as possible.

Heather growled, nearly shoving Lyn and Lindsay out of the way so she could stand in between them. The dark haired girl crossed her arms, and scrunched her nose at Lyn, huffing.

After a few moments of awkward silence amongst the campers, a boat pulled forward slowly. "Bad to the Bone" was playing on a boom-box under this terrifying boy's foot.

He was tall, lanky, and had a green dip dyed faux-hawk as a hairstyle. A skull shirt was on his top half over a long sleeved white top, and his face was heavily pierced. He looked incredibly angry. He looked like he was about to rip someone's face off. It was moderately terrifying, to say the least.

Chris smiled a fake smile. "Duncan."

The punk took a step forward, threateningly. "I don't like," he paused, cracking his knuckles, "surprises."

Chris, unfazed, simply waved it off. His smile was not weakened by his threats. "Yeah, your parole officer warned me about that. He told me to give him a holler anytime you hurt someone to have you sent back to juvie. And I'm sure the cameras that are on you will be proof enough for you to be thrown in there for a long time."

The last two words Chris uttered sent shivers up the contestants' spines when he said it in an almost mocking way. Duncan, instead of mauling Chris like the others expected him to do, merely shrugged it off as if it was nothing. The punk mustered a sardonic smile.

"Okay, then."

Duncan meandered down the dock, and stuck out his tongue suggestively at Heather before stating, "Meet you by the campfire, gorgeous."

"Screw off. Try someone who's at your standards, thug."

The punk ogled at Heather, wiggling his eyebrow(s) in an explicit manner, before pretending to grab his groin. "Any time, toots."

Heather turned away, scoffing at the new boy's attitude. She would not let him get the last word in, in another case, but for now, she would plot a way to get him back for his blatant disrespect.

Another boat arrived, and a relatively tall, yet pretty girl stepped out of it. Hair held in a high ponytail that reached her mid-back, her appearance screamed "west coast". She didn't wear any makeup, but that didn't stump her appearance, as she let her natural beauty show instead of using cosmetics. Her smile was thin-lipped, but dazzling nonetheless.

She held onto an orange surfboard under her right arm, and a blue duffel back was in her left hand's grasp.

Chris smiled at the camera, before ushering the blonde to walk towards him. "Our surfer chick, Bridgette, has arrived."

Duncan called out from the crowd; "This ain't Malibu, honey."

Bridgette's smile faded, as she began to scan her surroundings. She sighed in disbelief. "I thought we were going to be on a beach?"

Chris's smile didn't fade. "We are! Look around!"

"I mean... One with waves?"

The man shrugged. "We never said anything about waves."

Bridgette, dejected, decided to quickly get over it. Her smile quickly threw itself back on her face, and she shrugged. "Oh, well."

"That's the spirit. Join the others."

The surfer narrowly avoided knocking out Chris's teeth with her surfboard as she turned around to say goodbye to Chris. The man decided to just tell her to go and look pretty, annoyed that she hit him in the face. Bridgette apologized multiple times, but she decided to give up, placing her bags at the end of the dock like everyone else.

Chris stood, waiting for the next contestant, only to feel a soft breathing on his neck. He turned, to become face to face with a very dorky, yet slightly good looking young fellow. Bright red hair, most likely native to southern Scotland, sat on this boy's head, and it was knotty and wiry. The boy let out an asthmatic wheeze, and wiped his nose on his sleeve.

"Meet," Pause. "Harold."

Chris took a step back, trying to re-gain some personal space that he had lost in this encounter.

"I thought this was going to be some fancy talent show. Not at a dirty summer camp...?"

The host shrugged. "We're going to be doing camp-y stuff now."

Instead of the expected groan from the boy, he pumped a fist in the air and belted out a "yes".

"This is so much more friendly to my excellent skills."

The beanpole staggered slightly, but then retained his so-called composure as he blended with the group. He sneezed, but thankfully covered his nose. He began to chatter with Beth about his life-threatening allergies, and the girl went along with it, desperate to make at least some sort of friend.

The next boy to arrive, to put it bluntly, was huge. The others thought that DJ was huge, but this boy, although the same height, also was huge in diameter. He was enormously fat, but almost jolly. He moved quickly for such a big guy, and grabbed Chris, hugging him to his chest.

"It's so great to be here! Woo!"

Dropping the host back down to the dock, he chuckled. Chris and Owen bantered back in forth various excited exclamations, which ended in the former of the two to send him with the others. The mountainous boy made no argument, happily joining the few on the dock.

The next two were practically fraternal twins- fraternal the key word of that sentence. One was tall, one was short. One was thin, one was plump. One was dark skinned, one was light skinned. But they both had the same smile plastered on their faces, as they happily jumped in place.

Kathryn and Sabrina, a.k.a Katie and Sadie, as they preferred to be called, were attached at the hip since they were in kindergarten. Friends since childhood, they have been practically the same person since they were little. Neighbors, they spent almost every waking moment together.

"Katie, Sadie! So good to see you here!"

The two girls squealed in delight, but paused to scan the area surrounding the two.

Sadie was the first to gasp. "Katie!** Katie!** It's a summer camp."

Katie replied, eyes lighting up like stars in the sky. "**OMG!** It _totally_, like, is!"

"I've always wanted to go to a summer camp!"

"Same!"

"I love it so far! We have so much in common!"

"Eee! I know!"

The two shared a moment together, hugging, and squealing, much to the others' annoyance. Chris tapped his foot on the ground impatiently, waiting for the two girls to get on with it.

Lyn, from across the dock, realized that Katie was the one with the similar name. The girl inwardly cried in pain.

The two twins, ignoring Chris, locked arms and skipped to the end of the dock together with their luggage. Gwen looked ready to cry, and so did Heather. They both prayed that they wouldn't die of annoyance.

A boat arrived, and a short, yet frail looking boy came out wearing a large blue knitted hat on his head, with mousey brown hairs sticking out. A green sweatshirt the same color as a grandma's couch was on his body, along with ratty blue jeans and running sneakers that seemed to be worn out big time.

Other than being dressed like a hobo, he was a relatively cute looking boy, having a button nose and large brown eyes.

"Ezekiel, what's up?"

Ezekiel, preferring to be called Zeke, was from Quebec. Bilingual, he spoke both Canadian-French and English. He had a slight accent, but he could still speak English mostly fluently.

Zeke's eyes narrowed, and he cocked his head to the side lightly, before he finally understood what Chris was asking. "Oh, nothing much. I'm glad to uh, be here."

His stereotypical Canadian accent certainly didn't make him sound as smart as others would have thought, but Chris was actually very impressed that he understood the modern lingo.

The next boat arrived to show a somewhat thin boy, relatively tall (taller than most of the girls there so far), and he had short, styled brown hair. He had an upturned shaped nose, which suited his features, and teal colored eyes. He smiled broadly, showing a small gap between his two front teeth.

He wore a long-sleeved sweater that had two colored stripes going around the mid-section, and a collared shirt that peeked out from above and below the knitted top. He also donned pants that seemed to have incredibly deep pockets, which are later revealed to be an epi-pen and a kazoo.

To put it bluntly, the boy looked like an oversized fourteen year old, getting the height of the puberty rather than the toned looks.

He had an air around him that could be labeled as _"trying to be cool but failing"_. He made his hands into the shape of a gun, and pretended to shoot some _"sick fires"_ at the host.

"It's Cody! The Codester! The Code**meister**!" Chris shouted, fist-bumping the boy.

In response, Cody grinned a large grin, and high-fived Chris after the fist-bump. "Great to be here, man!"

Again with the "man"s. It was getting old to some of the campers that were there.

Cody, after a quick conversation with Chris, sashayed towards the females, flashing a gap-toothed smile at the group of girls. He unclouded his throat.

"Hello, ladies. Glad to see you gorgeous women here. Heheh."

Attempting to make his speech silky, he slithered over to Bridgette,

The gap-toothed boy simply wagged his eyebrows to Lyn, who turned away, before he could say anything else. Cody decided to position himself between Lyn and Gwen, smirking at the latter in an innocent yet coquettish way.

The teen sure did fail at smooth talking the ladies. Most of them predicted that he was living in "fantasy land".

A few other campers arrived after that, including an angular-faced jock that said nothing but a loud crash (which doesn't count as talking) and a thumbs up to prove that he wasn't hurt. Chris introduced him as Tyler, before he made his crash landing into everyone's luggage.

Tyler was originally from New Brunswick, nearing the border of Maine, the furthest northeast state in the USA. He was a dual citizen of both countries, having a passport, and attending a private school in Southern Maine.

Although he went to school there, he spent summers in Canada, which caused him to audition for the show. Tyler participated on most of the school sports teams, excluding football and basketball. Even if the only sport he truly succeeded at was the swim team.

The next camper to arrive was a busty, curvy African-decent female named LeShawna- She was bursting with confidence when she arrived, and although quickly bantering with Heather, she was still smiling. Though easily set off, she seemed like she was a relatively good person overall.

LeShawna also threatened to smack Harold all the way across the island and back, but the red-headed "master of skills" blushed, and sighed loudly.

We have found the odd-couple, everyone. Hold the applause.

The next boy to arrive was obviously of mixed blood, having a pale skin tone, but indian features. Tanned skin, chocolate brown hair, and eyes to match his hair were some of his attributes. His sense of fashion wasn't exactly on the scale of modern, but he definitely came off as someone who didn't exactly want to be in the limelight.

Sweater-vest, over a polo-shirt, over a long sleeved button up, along with shorts. Warm on the top, cool on the bottom.

"Noah, great to see you arrive." Chris said, a wink in his voice (although he did not physically make the gesture). Noah seemed to stay stoic through this, quickly questioning Chris.

"Did you get the missive referring to my life-threatening allergies?" He asked, tone low, yet still going through puberty.

The host merely shrugged. "Eh, I'm sure someone did."

Noah's eyes darted back and forth quickly, before he inhaled loudly through his nose, showing evident distaste in the area that he would be staying in. "Is this where we're biding?"

He definately used big words, that's for sure.

The sweater-vest-clad teen was interrupted by a certain punk with a green mohawk. Duncan pounded a fist into his hand, smiling threateningly.

"No, it's your mommy's house. And we're havin' a big party."

Noah, unfazed by Duncan's attempts to prod at him, simply smirked. "Cute. Oh, and by the way, your piercings are absolutely adorable. Did you poke all those holes in your face by lonesome, big guy?"

The bookworm's voice absolutely dripped with cynicism, causing Lyn to giggle, and the rest of the campers' eyes widen.

Silence.

Duncan's eye twitched abruptly, before reaching out to grab Noah's lip. Noah didn't attempt to move away as the punk snatched it. He pulled a needle out of his pocket, and gave the tanned boy a condescending smile. "Yeah, you want one?"

"Uh,_ no thanks_." Noah started, still unaffected by Duncan's threats, "Can I have my lip back please?"

The mohawked teen released Noah's lip, in an act of both respect and apathy.

_"Thanks."_

The boy whose lip was just released shrugged it off, standing behind both Cody and another girl, Eva, who had arrived a few minutes prior. Eva growled to herself for zero reason provoked, which caused a few surrounding campers to shudder.

Eva was born in a small village in the Netherlands. To put it bluntly, she's foreign, strong, and has a thick accent to match- well, thick is an overstatement. She moved to Quebec at the tender age of six years old, was raised by her parents and was soon enrolled in a small, private school, where they all spoke French. Her parents strictly spoke Dutch to her in her house, so Eva had quite a mixed accent.

Being trilingual, however, has its perks. If Eva dressed and groomed herself to compliment the muscular, yet curvy figure, she would be easily labeled as an exotic beauty, having boys on her left and right.

But, she decided against it, letting God do its work on her, and in God's work, it actually means giving her extreme anger issues that had caused multiple teenage boys to go to the emergency room.

She was not exactly the sweetest grape on the vine, to put it lightly.

Although, Cody did not hesitate to flirt with her. But, the flirtations he committed caused him to have a bruised thumb (and a bruised ego).

Noah leaned over to Lyn after Eva hurt Cody, scooting closer to her, as he whispered lightly in her ear. "She's a keeper."

The band-geek snorted, covering her mouth to keep her from laughing too obnoxiously. Her laugh wasn't the most pretty sounding noise.

After a drop dead sexy male named Justin, a petite hispanic brunette named Courtney and a female with wild, orange hair which made her look exotic named Izzy.

Chris stepped up to the twenty-four campers, clearing his throat.

"Well, campers, here we are," He paused, flashing them all a pearly white smile, "Follow me to the campfire, this way."

Chris waved his arm in a motion that suggested the twenty-four of them had to follow.

Few groaned, obviously unhappy to be there, but Lyn simply decided to walk beside the African-Canadian girl with the hard-to-remember first name and the bookworm, whose name she believed to be Noah.

The trail was, obviously, a dirt trail, that had countless roots sprouting out of the ground. The band geek attempted to walk around them, not really in the mood to trip today. The blonde surfer (Bridgette, was it?) nearly tripped, but was caught by Geoff, the party dude whose name was hard to forget.

Multiple mosquito bites later, they arrived at a clearing, which looked like one of those campsites that you'd pitch up a tent at. Although, some of that vision was faded, as twelve stumps resided in front of a campfire pit. If you looked down another path, you could see a large open space, along with two log cabins.

The campers were ushered over to the stumps, where half sat down and half stood in the back or on the sides.

Drew shuffled nervously in place, his white-blonde hair covering his eyes slightly. He pulled his black beanie closer to his ears- nervousness wasn't exactly fun. He sat down hesitantly next to Lyne, who was seated next to Noah.

Once the chit chat between campers was over, Chris signaled the cameras to roll once again.

"Okay, campers. This is the campfire pit-"

"No, really?" Duncan scoffed. Noah snickered beside him, as did Zeke.

Chris shot Duncan a look, as the punk rolled his eyes. Chris cleared his throat once again, repeating the sentence he attempted to state before he had been so rudely interrupted.

"Okay, campers. This," the host paused, waving his arms around the area, "is where you're going to be staying for the next eight weeks."

A low grumble came out of Heather's mouth, and Gwen shot her a glare from the side.

"You'll be staying here with each other. For the next eight weeks, you'll make allies, enemies, and maybe even friends. You'll be staying in those cabins over there." Chris finished, pointing to the two log-cabins that stood near the mess-hall.

Duncan wiggled his eyebrows. "If we're taking requests, I'd like to bunk under her." He pointed towards Heather.

She made a disgusted noise in response. "They're not co-ed, are they?"

Chris shook his head, ignoring Duncan's lewd comment. "No, they're not. Boys will get one side of the cabin, while girls will get the other."

Heather sighed in relief, while the blonde, Lindsay, raised her hand and cocked her head to the side. "Can I get side closest to the lake because I'm the prettiest girl here?"

"Okay, that's true," Chris paused, earning glares from every other girl at the camp, "but that's not how it works around here. Gophers get the left cabin, while Bass get the right side. Any questions?"

Chris received no more questions, so he decided to move on swiftly. He pulled out a card with names on them.

"Now, I'm going to split you all into two separate teams! When I call your name, stand to my left, and you'll be given directions. Okay, first off, Gwen."

Gwen sighed slightly, stood up, and trudged towards where Chris had signaled. She crossed her arms, and looked to her left slightly.

"Katie and Beth."

The taller of the twins looked up with a worried expression flashing across her eyes, looked over to Sadie in panic, and then nervously placed herself next to the goth. The latter of the two, Beth, had no issue, and silently walked over to them.

"Owen."

Owen, ecstatic to be called, yelled out "woohoo!" before running towards the group. Gwen's eyes widened in terror when he wrapped his arm around her.

"Heather, Justin and Lyn."

The first of the two stood up and strutted, jet black hair whipping behind her as she did so. Justin calmly joined, while Lyn was moderately embarrassed to be called with two of the hottest people on the island.

"Cody."

The geek stood up, smiled softly (dropping the cool-kid act), and quietly joined them.

"Trent, Lindsay, LeShawna and... Noah."

As the last name was called, the dark haired boy smirked, closed his book and then scurried to the group. The first three merely shrugged and smiled- before Chris chucked a pole at the group, hitting Lindsay straight in the face. The blonde yelped, and Owen picked it up.

"You are now known as..."

The pole unraveled a cloth, with a strange design.

"The Screaming Gophers!"

Everyone looked unimpressed or embarrassed, excluding Owen.

Said boy cheered, and held up the banner, dropping it into LeShawna's hands so he could grab Trent and Noah in a headlock. "Aw yeah! I'm a gopher! Woo!"

_Confessional._

Gwen let her gaze stop into the camera. "You have _got_ to be kidding me."

_End confessional._

Chris smiled (no one was sure if it was real or not) at Owen's antics, and whipped out his paper once again, with all new names on it. He didn't intend on listing all of them off, however, so he instead instructed them all to stand over on the other side of him.

Sadie stood, frowning. "Wait, what about Katie?"

_"What about her?"_ Drew snapped. He wasn't one on patience, even if he looked rather meek.

The girl began to sniffle, not quite crying, but she was obviously upset. "I've never been on a team without Katie before... Katie, I'll miss you!" She shouted the last part, waving to her friend. Katie, looking just as forlorn, waved softly.

"It'll be okay, Sadie." Courtney assured. "C'mon, we can be your friends in the meantime. You can get experience from this, trust me, I'm a CIT."

Sadie stayed silent for a few moments, before nodding. She knew this was for the best- she would try to switch, but if it didn't work, she decided not to dwell on it- Katie would understand.

The Killer Bass and the Screaming Gophers.

They would need all the luck they could get.

* * *

_A/N: Thanks for reading, guys. If you would like to see new friendships, review with couples/friendships you'd like to see. I have a relationship planned at the moment, but other than that, send me the requests. (:_


	2. Day 1 - Part 2

_A/N: Other than a relatively rude review that has been deleted, I am really liking your feedback so far! **Thank you so much!**_

_I got some kind words in PMs, too c:! Thanks so much for checking out my story, and positive feedback is welcomed. Thank you to the guest reviewer for leaving kind words! But, behind all of that, I hope you enjoy! Shout-outs to those who have followed and favorited so far (the whole two of you!), you're both greatly appreciated!_

_Again, enjoy!_

* * *

"Are you serious?"

Those were the first three words to escape Noah's mouth as he examined the light gray soup that sat in his nearly cracked bowl. He stared at it for a moment. One of the so-called "potato shreds" looked suspiciously like a rubber-band.

The bookworm hesitantly reached over to the salt that sat on the hard, wooden table, and he shook some on the slop. Raising the surprisingly normal plastic spoon to his mouth, he sipped the juice, only to gag directly afterwards. He earned a sympathetic look from both the geek boy and the slightly less geeky girl as he wiped his mouth on his white sleeve.

He outwardly cringed when his sleeve turned a mysterious shade of brown.

"This is disgusting." The girl named Heather declared.

Noah rolled his eyes. "Really, genius. Who would've thought?"

Cody snickered, and the girl next to him punched his arm, not wanting him to get on Heather's bad side. Noah smirked, as Heather simply sneered at him.

"I don't think this is safe to eat." The girl named Lyn said hesitantly, after a few moments of silence at the table. Katie, sitting next to her, nodded in agreement, but was interrupted by Owen.

"What, are you kidding?" The tubby boy bellowed, blue eyes nearly sparkling. "This is quality food! I'm starvin'! You can give me it if you want to!"

Noah, Cody, Lindsay, Beth and Lyne all shoved their bowls towards the large blonde at the exact some time, the boy nearly fainting from happiness. Owen immediately downed three of the bowls, barely struggling to stuff in the last two. Cody had to look away.

"Mmm. Chewy."

Oh god.

_Confessional_

Trent shuddered. "If I see Owen eat any more of that, I might cry."

_End Confessional_

Trent made a weird noise that was a mixture between "ah" and "ghh", obviously disgusted by the teen's gluttonous antics.

Heather scoffed, and Lindsay simply gagged. "H-How can you eat this?"

"Back at home, we didn't have a lot to eat, so we take what we can get." Owen simply stated.

"I seriously doubt that." Noah muttered under his breath, leaning over so his hair obscured his eyes. He could still taste it, but thankfully, he had water to wash it down.

Lyn narrowed her eyes, directing this question at Gwen. "What do you think Chris'll make us do for the first challenge?"

The goth was irresolute, obviously unsure. "He's obviously a psycho. He'll probably make us dissect a cat or something."

Lindsay gasped in horror, hands shooting up to cover her mouth. "He'll do that?!"

"Sarcasm." Gwen blinked. She was appalled that Lindsay managed avoid grasping the concept. Cody snickered.

The blonde looked even more confused, and instead of giving the goth a proper response, she took a sip of her water and turned to Beth, starting a conversation with her. Sheesh.

Gwen slammed her head down into her crossed arms, almost pitifully. "Everyone here is insane. I'm going to rot here, aren't I."

Trent looked away slightly, unsure of wether or not he should have comforted her, but before he could make his decision, Lyn took over, saying "there, there" to the melancholy goth.

The Bass team, on the other hand, looked just as repulsed as the disgusted Gophers. He watched as the girl Bridgette took a bite, and her face paled. She ran out of the room, and vomited all over herself and the floor.

Poor girl.

Noah swore that he could hear the chef in charge laughing in the background. Fortunately, the boy had a relatively strong stomach, and even though he looked scrawny, at least he had that.

After another few minutes of repulsed silence, Chris entered out of nowhere, startling half the kids in the room. You could hear Beth yelp and nearly splash her food on herself. Heather glanced at her, repulsed.

"Campers, welcome to the dining hall! Our quality meals will keep you energized for these challenges!"

He winked. Weirdo.

"It's quality, alright." Noah deadpanned, earning a laugh or two from both of the tables. Chris shot him a look, and the boy merely shrugged in response, with a "well it's true" expression.

The host continued, acting unfazed. "All of your bags have been brought to the cabins that you are staying at. Feel free to unpack and get to know each other. Our first challenge starts tomorrow at noon, so be ready then!"

Chris then left the teens to themselves. It took a few moments before they all began chatting amongst themselves once again.

The Gophers overheard a rugged looking, dark skinned teen at the other table shrug, reassuring the chubbier girl, Sadie, who was obviously worried as to what Chris would make them do for the first challenge. "It's our first challenge. I doubt it'll be that hard. Right guys?"

The nerd with the bright orange hair, Harold, dramatically pointed at DJ all while shoving his glasses closer to his forehead. "Do not tempt fate, comrade! It'll bring us negative fortune."

Duncan snorted loudly and Drew rolled his eyes. The latter crossed his arms.

"Luck isn't real."

He didn't talk much, apparently. Figures.

"Yuh-huh." Zeke retorted for Harold, sounding neither childish nor mature when saying this. The blond narrowed his eyes in response and turned away. "My 'rents told me that if we don't watch ourselves, we oughta get smited from the heavens. We would need to pray for the wounds to heal. Luck is real."

Everyone who sat at the Bass table's eyebrows quirked, before Zeke shut himself up. Courtney muttered something profane under her breath at the boy.

Duncan, breaking the silence, took Harold into a headlock, giving the unfortunate nerd a noogie, which didn't exactly look like a friendly gesture. Harold cried out in response, which made the punk let go.

Noah's rolled his eyes in exasperation, mostly in awe at the fellow campers' stupidity. He stood up, and walked out of the mess hall. "If you excuse me, I'll be unpacking."

"I'll go too." Cody stood up, wanting to escape the mess hall as quickly as possible. Gwen and Lyn did too, and no one else followed until later on.

Noah stepped outside, the three following him, only to shield his eyes from the sun. "Too bright," he grumbled.

Cody quickly leaned on Gwen, and the girl shrugged him off. "Get lost."

"I'll get her someday." The boy sighed, smiling softly, while Gwen was still in earshot. The goth's eyebrows furrowed together, before she picked up her pace. Cody didn't notice, however, until Lyn stopped him.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "I hope you know that girls find it incredibly creepy when guys don't leave them alone, right?"

Cody looked genuinely confused and hurt. Lyn felt a pang of guilt on her part. She felt a little bad for not being as tactful as she could have. She quickly continued.

"You should back off a little from the girls here if you wanna get a girlfriend." She concluded, nodding. "Try not to get punched. Some girls here are tough."

The brunette smiled a little at Cody, sympathetically, before jogging to catch up with Gwen. Cody grinned to himself- he could totally snag Gwen. He just had to stay away for a while. And then, he'd make his move. Noah caught up to the boy, raising a single eyebrow.

"Her words went in one ear and out the other, didn't they." He stated bluntly.

Cody kept staring at Gwen, and then blinked. "Oh, hey, Noah, did you say something?"

The bookworm sighed louder than he should have, and continued to walk with Cody. Although a wannabe-womanizer, Cody seemed to be one of the only tolerable Gophers. Trent seemed to be a huge hipster, Owen was a walking fart-bag, and Justin was so quiet that it was creepy.

Justin's emotionless, staring eyes. Noah shuddered just thinking about them.

"Do you think I have a chance?" Cody asked, breaking the silence. Noah stopped in his tracks, snickered, and then kept walking.

"Nah, she seems like she'd be into the hipsters or, as the teen chick-flicks say, the Jocks, to spice things up a bit. Hon, you aren't getting with her."

The tech geek sighed in response, crestfallen. "I won't give up."

"Of course you won't." Noah muttered.

The bookworm glanced to his left, to see Duncan, Geoff, DJ, Drew and Tyler shuffle to their cabins in a giant hoard. He heard Heather sneer-talking about their disgusting testosterone or something along those lines.

* * *

The japanese girl, Heather, frowned as she entered her cabin. She tossed her bags onto the ground, looking around at her surroundings. "Isn't this a little, you know, summer camp-ish?"

"That's the idea, genius." Gwen snarked, trudging past her to claim a bed, with Lyn following. Heather frowned at former of the two.

"Oh, shut it, weird goth girl."

Pathetic insult, much?

Lyn bit her lip, wanting to tell Heather to not be so rude, before deciding against it. Making enemies on the first day wasn't exactly the smartest choice, and she wasn't too good at making the right decisions when it came to that sort of thing.

Heather obviously got over it quickly, because instead of complaining further, she simply placed her bags and pillows on her bottom bunk. "Lindsay, bunk with me."

It was more of a statement than a question.

"Okay!" The blonde chirped after a moment. She was unaware of Heather's bossiness, but that seemed to be for her own good.

On the far left of the cabin, Beth chatted with Katie, and the latter, although crestfallen about being separated from Sadie, was happy to bunk with a new friend.

"Beth, you should style your hair like this more often!" Katie smiled, after finishing putting Beth's hair into a braid with some strands framing her face. Beth looked into the mirror and gasped, giggling.

"Oh my gosh, Katie, you're so good at doing hair. I wish I could do that."

"Oh my gosh, thanks, Beth, you're so nice."

"Katie, thank you sooo much."

Beth, trying her hardest to fit in, was happy that Katie was being nice to her. She had succeeded in making a new friend! She would have to tell her parents all about it after she got home- and it was only the first day.

Gwen took the bottom bunk in the front of the cabin, while Lyn took the bunk on top. Gwen decided to begin drawing some stars and a moon on her sketchpad. Lyn peeked down, and complimented it quietly.

Heather was caught staring at Gwen with a slightly deducing stare, and the goth immediately crossed her arms and looked away. Lyn's eyes widened, looking at anything but Heather, obviously trying to avoid tension. The tension was broken when good vibes entered the cabin.

"Aw yes, my own bunk." LeShawna smirked, putting her luggage on the top bunk as she happily flopped on the bottom bunk.

Beth giggled from across the cabin. "You seem excited about that!"

"You bet I am." The "sista" responded. "I don't have to keep my bags on the floor, either."

Gwen smiled at LeShawna as well, before standing up with her sketchbook. She had all day, so she decided to take advantage of it. She could go by the river and draw, or she could even write a poem or two. Taking a break from everyone would be just what the doctor ordered.

"Where are you going, weird goth girl?" Heather asked suspiciously, crossing her arms. Gwen raised an eyebrow.

"It's the first day, and I need some alone time." The goth stated, ignoring Heather's sharp tone.

It was best to not start trouble on the first day.

Lindsay broke the tense silence as she shrieked, and pointed at the floor. She leaped onto the top bunk, and began wailing loudly. Heather saw as she began to panic, and Lyn shrieked as well.

A meaty, round, goliath cockroach skittered across the floor. Beth made a noise of disgust, and a few from the boys' side of the cabin peeked into the girls' side to see what was causing all of the commotion. However, they did not like what they saw.

"NOPE." Noah and Cody immediately said at the same time, fast-walking away from the creature once they saw it.

Owen backed away slowly, before leaving himself.

"You're all useless!" Heather cried out pathetically at the three males who ditched them.

As the cockroach continued to crawl across the floor, Lindsay and Katie kept repeating "kill it" over and over again. Lyn, without thinking, picked up one of her books, and chucked it at the bug.

When it missed, she stood up, and tip toed towards the bug with the recently retrieved novel.

"DIE!"

She slammed it onto the floor, hearing a sickening crunch.

The demon had been crushed, and the book had been ruined forever.

_Confessional_

Lyn stared into the camera. "That was the most horrifying experience of my life."

_End Confessional_

Lyn all of a sudden looked disappointed, the realization of the book's fate dawning upon her. "Awwww, that was my favorite book..."

Katie innocently shrugged at Lyn, wondering what the big deal was. "Can't you just wash it off?"

In response, the band geek shook her head back and forth quickly. "No. No. I am not going to touch that ever again."

"Ugh, just pick up your stupid book already, geek." Heather snapped. "I'm not in the mood to listen to you complain."

Lyn, moderately offended by Heather's words, didn't dignify her with a response. Instead, she reached over and picked up her book by the corner. "Ew, ew... ewwww..."

When she saw the crushed bug on the back cover, she shrieked, chucking it out the door, never to be seen again.

LeShawna laughed heartily, patting Lyn's back. "Girl, you know how to crush a bug."

"I have experience. Unfortunately." She sighed. It was true.

After a moment of silence, Heather stomped out of the cabin grumbling something under her breath, Lindsay following suit like a duckling. "Ugh. I'm taking a shower."

Once Heather was out of earshot, Katie turned to the three other girls. "Sheesh, she needs to chill out."

"Tell me about it." LeShawna crossed her arms. "Girl needs to learn how to chill."

Lyn's shoulders slumped. "I don't get why she insulted me. Ahh, whatever. She's probably just in a crappy mood."

_Confessional_

Heather glared at the camera, before picking at her nails and fiddling with her hair. "The girls here are all stupid. There's an ugly farm girl, a tweedle, _LeShawna,_ an annoying geek and a weird goth girl. And then there's Lindsay.

_End Confessional_

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Bass cabin, everything was going relatively smoothly.

"Sadie, would you like to bunk with me?" Courtney asked out of kindness. She was a CIT, after all, and it was her duty to make others feel comfortable at camp. The plump girl nodded, smiling slightly.

"Sure, Courtney! You're like, so nice, I miss Katie and all, but you seem nice too."

The hispanic girl smiled in response. "Thank you, Sadie. You can always visit Katie later."

Although Courtney was being nice right now, she knew that when the competition started, she wouldn't really want to be making close friendships with people.

Bridgette managed to bunk with Eva, the latter taking the bottom bunk with a grumble, and Izzy decided to bunk alone, leaping onto the top bunk.

"AHAHA! Yessss, I get it all to myself." The redhead cheered, pumping her fists into the air. Eva scoffed, shoving her earbuds into her ears. "You know, I used to have my own bed, and then my aunt stole it in the middle of the night! Wow, that Wednesday was craaaazy. Did I ever tell you how much I love cats? I have a cat."

Bridgette nodded at Izzy, trying to listen, but failing to keep up with the energetic girl's stories. "That's cool, Izzy."

"I know, right?"

"Don't disturb me." Eva grumbled, interrupting their conversation. She closed her eyes, wanting to rest for a little bit. Bridgette gave a nervous glance to Courtney. She wasn't really excited to be roommates with her. Hopefully, the bass team would be drama free.

Boy, were they in for it later.

* * *

Drew and Geoff decided to bunk together, becoming friends nearly instantly.

"You skate too?" Drew asked softly. The party boy gave him a thumbs up from the bottom bunk.

"Hells yeah I do, bro! I can totally do some tricks, we should compare sometime."

"Yeah, sure."

Duncan bunked above Tyler, Harold decided to sleep above DJ, and Zeke had a bottom bunk without a bunkmate. The home-schooled kid was okay with that.

Tyler was staring out their door, where Lindsay and Heather passed by. As Heather continued walking, Lindsay paused and waved at Tyler shyly. The jock gave her a lovey-dovey face, and batted his eyes at her. She giggled in response.

"Gag." Duncan deadpanned. "Jocks and cheerleaders. Sheesh, you know how to live up to that stereotype."

"I know!" Tyler exclaimed relatively loudly, sounding happy rather than offended. Harold shrugged, going back to his gameboy.

"Momma..." DJ muttered, staring wistfully at a framed photo of her. "How I'll miss your cooking."

Duncan scoffed and made a "pfft" sound at him. "You're a momma's boy? Ha! That's priceless."

DJ, unaffected by Duncan's attempts to taunt, let a hand gently go across his mother's photographed cheek. "Yes, yes I am."

Duncan grew a little respect for the guy. DJ has made it on his "possible bro" list. The bass guys would befriend each other quite easily, unlike the Gophers or even the Bass girls. It was obvious that the Bass had less drama overall, though, even on the first day.

Drew suddenly spoke up. "Lyn goes to my school. I've also seen Lindsay on the rival school's cheerleading team when I go to the games with some friends. They're both from around where I live."

Geoff raised an eyebrow. "For serious? You're pretty observant, bro."

The skater boy shrugged, instead of thanking him. "Yeah, I didn't really recognize her at first, but at school, she goes by her full name, Katelyn. I don't know her at all, though, I've just seen her around. As for Lindsay, it's hard not to recognize her."

"That's a coincidence though." Harold commented from above. "Aren't we all like, from different provinces and stuff?"

Duncan chuckled. "Obviously, dork. They're not gonna gather twenty people from the same school and throw them into a competition."

Harold scoffed. "Gosh, there are twenty two of us. Jeez."

Drew sighed, exasperated, rubbing his temples with his index fingers. This team was going to need all the help they could get.

* * *

Cody flopped onto his bottom bunk, still crestfallen from earlier. "I thought for sure I would have a shot with someone from this camp. Am I doing something wrong?"

"You're trying too hard." Noah stated bluntly. "Don't be an idiot. Just be yourself, or something. Don't ask me."

Cody actually listened to Noah's words, rather than ignoring them. "You're right, actually. I just, ahh, I don't know. I want to impress someone here. I'm a nerd."

"We're all nerds in our own special way." Trent pointed out, playing with his guitar on his top bunk, above Justin who was applying a face mask. "That's what makes us unique."

"Says the chiseled macho-man. You probably have girls drooling at your footstep, with all of your music." Noah muttered to himself. "You're probably the least nerdy person here, besides 'Piercings ' over there."

Knowing Noah was referring to Duncan, Trent chuckled to himself, after strumming his guitar. "Well, I think that you shouldn't push yourself onto girls. They want guys who are relaxed, you know? They want someone special."

"Wow, what an incredibly moving speech. I'm touched." Noah smirked. "But I can say that you're kind of right."

Cody shrugged to himself. "I guess so. I know the ladies," he paused, noticing Trent's raised eyebrow, "I mean, Gwen, won't like me if I act like myself."

"She also won't like you if you breathe on her neck, hotshot." Noah bluntly stated. Trent laughed to himself.

"I like girls who make me food." Owen muttered on his bottom bunk, playing with his Nintendo DS. "But I don't go around breathing on their necks."

Trent blinked, slightly confused by what the blond boy meant. Confused, the guitarist brushed it off. "Uh, that's nice, Owen."

Noah sighed. "I'm going to go outside and read. See you guys later."

"Seeya, man." Trent waved. Noah simply lifted his hand in response, as a backwards wave.

* * *

Lyn sighed to herself, sitting on her bottom bunk, her hair falling in front of her face as she reached around in her suitcase. "Aha, there it is."

"What is it?" LeShawna asked. She and Lyn were the only two inside of their room at the moment, and they were just hanging out.

"It's my Piccolo. I brought this and my Saxophone with me here, since I play them the best." Lyn responded, smiling softly. She opened her case and began to piece the instrument together.

LeShawna peeked over her shoulder. "Oh, it's like a mini-flute."

"Yep!" Lyn exclaimed. "I'm going to go out by the beach and play some songs. Wanna join me?"

"Nah," LeShawna shrugged, politely passing on the offer. "I'm gonna go see how my girl Gwen's doing. See you later?"

Lyn grinned, happy that she's made another friend today. "Yeah, see you!"

The girl, still wearing her grin, calmly walked outside with her Piccolo. She grasped it, slowly walking towards the shore which was only a few minutes away by foot. It was already starting to get late, and the sky was turning a light pinkish orange color.

She passed Katie and Sadie, and the two girls were hugging, finally being reunited after seven hours of separation. She grinned, watching them.

On the inside, Lyn wished that she brought her sunglasses with her. Eyestrain wasn't the most fun thing to occur when one was enjoying good music, and that was something that happened to her quite often. It was tiring. After a couple minutes of walking beside trees, a calm breeze came from the girl's left, and she turned to see the lake. She decided to sit at the edge of the dock, so she sat there, and decided to tune her instrument.

After playing a low note, it was a bit flat, so she pushed her mouthpiece inwards. It made the sound a little bit higher.

"Much better."

"What is?" A low voice asked.

Lyn nearly jumped a foot in the air, when she turned around to come face-first with a sweater vest. "Oh my god, Noah, you scared me!"

The boy shrugged, dismissing what she said. "Meh. I got bored. I needed to get away from the others for a while."

"Same," Lyn sighed. She loved LeShawna to death, but so far, this camp has been exhausting. "A couple of girls on my team are starting drama, and it's annoying. There are only a few sane people here."

"I understand completely." Noah groaned. "My cabin has a noxious fume tank, a hormonally confused teenage boy, a hipster and a beauty queen. I already know that my time here will be miserable." He shifted. "Who's causing problems so far?"

"Heather."

"Predictable. I'd rather trust Justin than her. And his eyes are more emotionless than a rock."

Lyn snorted. "He is pretty creepy, isn't he?"

Noah shrugged. "Meh, yeah, he was applying green cream to his face the last time I saw him. He was at it for twenty minutes, and then after, he stared at the mirror for another ten minutes. It was uncomfortable, to say the least."

"That sounds utterly horrifying."

The brown haired boy chuckled to himself, not giving eye contact. He simply flipped his page, and continued reading. Lyn decided to dip her feet in the water, since she had already wandered out there barefoot.

The two sat next to each other for about ten minutes. Lyn tuned her Piccolo once more, and Noah read his book. That went on for a while, before they noticed it was beginning to get dark.

The latter suddenly stood up. "Well," he paused, "I'm going to go check on Cody. He's been sitting in angst for over an hour. It's kind of unnerving."

Lyn nodded, half smiling. "Yeah, see you later. I'm going to head back in a few minutes."

The two parted ways after saying their goodbyes, and Lyn glanced downwards.

She had only met four sane people so far, it seemed. Gwen, Cody, LeShawna and Noah. Hopefully there wouldn't be too many issues on the team caused by conflicting attitudes. Heather seemed to be incredibly dramatic, which worried the others, and Lindsay was too naïve for her own good.

But that was only the beginning of the drama that was ahead of them.

* * *

_A/N: Thanks for reading! Reviews are appreciated, I'd love to hear your feedback. The first challenge will be in the next chapter, and trust me, more characters will get spotlight! Peace!_


	3. Day 2 - Part 1

_A/N: Hello guys!_

_I lied, this is a filler chapter. I'm writing the next one to be uploaded tomorrow- this is just to assure you that I'm not dead. This isn't being abandoned, that would just suck._

* * *

The time was 10:00 AM.

They all had a relatively hard time waking up the next morning. Everyone woke up feeling groggy, annoyed, or genuinely lethargic.

It wasn't exactly the freshest start of the day, but most of them got up without an issue.

Katie rolled over in her bed, moaning to Beth about how she didn't wanna get up yet. Beth was one of the "happier campers", and got up just fine. She decided to read some of a book that she had brought with her, until the rest of the Gopher girls woke up.

Heather was the next to wake up, and she was the least happy out of them, unsurprisingly. Gwen, and then LeShawna woke up.

Lindsay woke up next.

"Where am I?" She asked softly.

Gwen was tempted to slam her head into the wall repeatedly when Lindsay asked this question.

Gee, the goth sure lacked patience. Although, it was understandable, at least on her part.

"I don't want to get uuuuup." Lyn drawled, dropping to the floor from the top bunk. "Too much energyyy."

LeShawna patted her shoulder reassuringly. She herself was not a morning person- although, sleep did well to her looks.

On the other side of the cabin, the boys had already been awake. Well, except for Justin. Trent was currently attempting to wake the Beauty Queen up, but he struggled to do so, unsurprisingly.

"Hey, get up." Trent murmured, shaking Justin in his spot.

The latter of the two groaned and rolled over. "But I need my beauty sleep."

"You have got to be kidding me."

Noah crinkled his nose in a cynically displeased fashion. He leaned over to Cody, who had been awake for quite some time.

"Yes, he is definately the Anti-me."

Cody snickered at Noah's words.

Justin overheard Noah say this too, and he simply smirked and narrowed his eyes. Noah rolled his eyes, standing up, ushering Cody to follow him.

They all proceeded to walk to the cafeteria after a few minutes of grunting and groaning, and, the cafeteria was where most of the Killer Bass resided at the time. They all seemed to wake up easier than the Gophers, excluding a few of them.

"I hate life." The Gophers heard someone from the Bass mutter. Said Bass member was Drew, who threw himself onto a seat, and rested his head in his arms.

"Ghhghhh..."

Eva slammed her fist onto the table next to the short boy's face. She was evidently pissed off, her eyes blazing. She did not seem to be a morning person. "Get up right now! We don't need slackers on our team, got it?!"

Drew looked up to her with a a simple glare, eyes stone cold.

"Screw off."

Half of the Bass team gasped, while Duncan started chortling. Eva growled loudly at what Drew had said to her, and the Gophers stared in awe from the other side of the room. They could not believe it.

Eva grabbed Drew by the collar of his shirt, and the latter didn't wince.

"What did you just say to me?"

"I said, screw off."

Lyn buried her face in her hands, too afraid to watch the rest of the exchange. Heather simply watched with a small smile forming on her face.

Noah chuckled, while the rest stayed silent.

Eva growled even louder, and threw him to the floor. He landed on the ground with a loud thump, and the girl stood over him. "You're dead meat."

Well. Drew stood up, brushing himself off. He sat back down at the table, staring Eva down, but he said nothing.

Duncan broke the silence. "Tough crowd."

"I'll say." Geoff replied, raising his eyebrows at what had just happened. Duncan nodded to Drew in slight respect- however, the shorter just remained silent.

Sadie leaned over to Courtney, attempting to remain as quiet as possible. "She scares me."

The C.I.T. nodded lightly, before turning her attention back to the Bass table. She turned to Eva. "Eva, you need to control your temper."

Expecting Eva to throttle the councilor, the Bass winced. But instead, Eva glanced to the ground. She grunted out a half-hearted apology. Drew said nothing in response, and he looked away.

Ezekiel chuckled slightly, leaning to Geoff. "Wow, I didn't expect a girl to do that."

"Don't add to the fire, bro." The blond party boy warned. Bridgette, on the other hand, was heavily displeased overhearing that comment, but decided to stay quiet. However, if she heard him make another sexist comment, there would be trouble.

Normally, Bridgette was a peaceful girl. She was a pacifist, but when it came to unfairness, she didn't tolerate it. And that included boys thinking that they were better than girls. Also known as, misogyny.

The blonde surfer huffed softly, crossing her arms. Geoff noticed this, and turned his gaze towards her, grinning widely. Bridgette noticed this, and her eyes lit up, and she smiled back.

"Gag." Noah muttered in his mind.

"We still have two hours before the challenge starts," Trent started, as he gestured towards the clock, taking a bite of what was supposedly scrambled eggs. Guessing it was because he didn't want to starve. "so we should talk strategy."

"How can we 'talk strategy' if we don't even know what the challenge is yet?" Cody asked.

Trent shrugged in response. "Eh, I'm just trying to be useful is all."

"Well, we could talk strategy," Lyn suggested, "I mean, we can make a pact for all of us to participate?"

"Why would we do that?" Noah asked, not genuinely sounding confused. "Some of us are more physically capable in challenges. Me, for example, I don't have good stamina."

Heather shot him a look. "Yeah, 'Slowen' probably doesn't have it either. And 'stringbean-Cody'. And 'Geeklyn'."

"Geeklyn?" Lyn asked herself, looking down slightly. She was ignored.

Noah scoffed. "My point is, I don't believe promising something like that will benefit the team in the long run."

"Yeah, but you don't want to get voted out for something like that. Just try, really." Lyn said, putting a hand on his shoulder. Noah shrugged in response, lightly appreciating the friendly gesture. He sighed.

"Geek girl has a point." Heather said with a raise of an eyebrow. "Our team isn't losing because one slug decides to not do anything."

Noah simply looked away, reluctantly agreeing with heather. "Fine. I'll participate. On one condition."

Noah quieted down with the last few words, hushing down to a slow whisper. "You guys vote with me."

Heather raised an eyebrow, narrowing her eyes. "Well, this escalated quickly. Isn't a little early to be forming alliances?"

The bookworm smirked slightly. "Well, you seem pretty crafty yourself. You and Lyn could be good assets to the team."

The asian frowned at the indian boy in front of her. "Listen, if anyone is running an alliance, it's me. Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to the bathroom."

With that, Heather stood up, and stormed off. Lyn shrugged and raised an eyebrow. Noah turned to Cody, began talking, and the brunette girl finished her breakfast.

Meanwhile, Courtney leaned over to see what Duncan was doing, only to scoff in disgust. The punk was forming his food into what looked like a skull shape, the gray sludge being able to be formed like putty on a plate. Courtney visibly gagged.

"You're an ogre. Seriously? Playing with food?"

The petite hispanic seemed to be repulsed by unsanitary actions. Duncan filed this information into the back of his mind for future reference. He was smarter than he looked. Much smarter.

Duncan's lips curled upwards at Courtney's blatant disgust. "Wanna bite?"

"As if."

Courtney ended that with a curt turnaway, facing Bridgette, wanting to start conversation. The blonde was easy to converse with- innocent, clumsy, sure, but she was indeed friendly.

A few minutes after chowing down on sludge, Chris waltzed into the dining commons, munching on a fresh baked blueberry muffin. He made sure the other campers saw it, as he seemed to have a glint of mischief as he finished it off. The envy was evident on Owen's face.

"Well, campers, you survived your first night!"

"Barely." Gwen remarked from across the room.

"Shush." Chris barked. He regained his composure. "Now, I suppose you are ready for your first challenge?"

"No." Katie and Sadie mouthed to each other, and Chris gave them warning glances. They quieted their thoughts, and averted their attention to the host.

Chris smiled, with an evil glint in his eye. "Follow me outside once you're done eating. I'm sure you'll be excited to see what this challenge is!"

Sadie leaned over to DJ, thinking about his words from the day before. "Are you sure it'll be easy?"

DJ nodded, smiling softly at the girl, giving her the benefit of the doubt. "I'm sure it'll be fine."

But, when the campers gathered at the top of the cliff, everyone was as silent as the night.

Two words escaped DJ's lips.

"Oh, shit."

* * *

That's right! Challenge starts next chapter. I'm excited to write this, this is where events start to change slightly. :)


	4. Day 2 - Part 2

_A/N: I got lazy so I didn't update on my birthday. Whoops._

_Thanks for the lovely feedback (and from one of my favorite authors omg)._

* * *

Two words escaped DJ's lips.

"Oh, shit."

"Easy on the profanity, DJ, it costs extra to bleep things out." Chris shrugged, but laughed a little bit at the tall boy's reaction to the challenge.

The contestants peered over the edge to see a very microscopic circle of red in the middle of the water.

Absolutely incredible.

The sarcasm dripped off of that previous sentence.

Beth visibly shivered at the thought of having to throw herself off a cliff, and crossed her arms over her tankini top. She glanced at the host with a glint of fear in her eyes. "D-Do we have to jump in?"

Chris smiled widely. "Funny thing that you ask, Beth! You have to jump in," he emphasized the /you/ since Beth said /we/, "and I get to watch!"

The host turned towards the Bass, smirking, and he began to speak. "Rules are, you have to jump off the cliff,"

Drew made an... interesting... sound. "I think we got the hint when we made the thirty minute trek up the cliff."

Chris glared and continued. "Yes, but the waters happen to be infested with sharks. Freshwater sharks."

"Freshwater sharks...?" Harold questioned. He didn't seem to know wether or not they even existed. "We didn't learn about those in our muskrat boy meetings."

"No one cares." Chris interrupted. LeShawna returned his favor.

"You are one sick ticket." LeShawna spat, but didn't budge an inch. She looked just as nervous as the rest of the cast, but not quite as nervous as DJ or Courtney, to throw two examples out there.

And a few moments of silence amongst the group of teens later, Chris decided to move things along and get the challenge rolling. "Bass are up first."

Sadie made an "eep" in the back of her throat. "I-I can't. Not yet, at least."

"Well I'm not going first either." Courtney stated, crossing her arms. She frowned, and crinkled her nose. "I'd rather not risk my life, thank you very much."

Bridgette smiled re-assuringly at the brunette, placing a hand on her shoulder in support. "It's okay, Courtney. I can jump first and show you that it's safe, if you want."

Courtney frowned a bit deeper, but nodded nonetheless.

Bridgette sounded confident, but when she creeped towards the edge, she felt a lump in her throat. She was terrified. What if she didn't make it in? What if she fell instead of jumped and died? What if she didn't emerge from the water? She was the best swimmer she knew- but she felt her confidence wilt over time.

She swallowed the lump, and took a microscopic step forward.

"W-well," Bridgette started, "here goes nothing."

Clamping her two hands into a typical diving position, she inhaled deeply, and jumped as far as she could. After leaping, she found herself plummeting. But she couldn't find it in herself to scream.

_Splash._

Bridgette, landing deep into the safe zone, emerged moments later. Bangs hung in her eyes, but the adrenaline made her smile and wave upwards.

"I didn't die!" is all she could manage.

The rest of the Bass (and the entirety of the Gophers) looked slightly relieved, and held a bit of respect for the surfer who boldly took the courage to go first. Knowing that the drop down the cliff was safer than imagined, Tyler cheered.

"I can do it next!" The jock started, smiling. "This is gonna be great!"

The brunette sprinted towards the edge of the cliff and yelled "Kalabunga!" before plummeting down.

Is that even a word? Moving on.

Tyler screamed and whooped the entire way down, but to his own displeasure, he managed to make very, very painful sounding belly-flop. "Ow!"

He swore a few colorful words, too.

The boy sunk downwards like a rock, but was quickly saved by the life boat that was sitting on the sidelines.

Right after Tyler was dragged onto the lifeboat, this prompted the less-afraid of the group (Eva, Geoff and Duncan) to throw themselves off the cliff at the exact same time. Geoff seemed to enjoy the fall, while Eva and Duncan remained silent during their fall. The three that landed in the water quickly paddled to the lifeboat.

"DJ, you're up." Chris smirked. He knew that the big guy would chicken out, but he decided to drag it on longer for the viewers' sake. He had this planned out.

"I-I don't know. I'm afraid."

"C'mon, DJ!" Zeke muttered, patting the dude's back. "I'll do it with ya, eh!"

The taller boy glanced downwards, brown eyes showing fear. "I've been afraid of water since I was a kid."

Courtney scoffed. "You can't be afraid of water. That's stupid."

Sadie frowned at Courtney. "That's like, sooo rude. You can't judge him, you like, don't know him."

"Yeah, that's low." Katie piped up from the Gophers' side. Courtney growled at the two girls. The petite hispanic was about to bark out a rude remark to Sadie, but DJ shushed her.

Sadie and Courtney were supposed to be acquaintances. She sighed, in defeat. "Sorry, Sadie."

"Y-You're right, Courtney, it's stupid." DJ sighed. "But I can't do it."

Chris smirked at the drama that brewed up. This would surely raise ratings. "Nice! But," he paused, "that means you have to wear this for the rest of the day."

The host tossed a rubber, flimsy hat in the shape of a rubber chicken at DJ. The boy examined it.

"Aw, man." DJ said, voice forlorn.

He didn't put up much of a fight, however, and DJ simply put it on. He trudged to the escalator of shame, and hung his head as it led him down to the bottom of the cliff.

"Courtney's turn!" Drew volunteered with a small grin, glaring at the C.I.T.

The brunette glared at the smaller teen, and crossed her arms. "Um, Chris, I have a medical condition."

"And what might that be?" The host raised his eyebrows. He had the medical records of each of the contestants, so he already knew that Courtney would make something up, or come up with a witty remark.

"A medical condition that keeps me from, oh, I don't know, jumping off of cliffs into shark infested waters!"

_Confessional_

"Hah, they won't vote me out, even if we do lose, which is an incredibly slim chance." Courtney sniffed. "After all, I was a councilor in training. They need me. I'm their best competitor."

_End confessional_

Drew let out a low whistle. "_Wow._"

Chris shrugged simply.

"Well, you'll have to wear this." he started, waving the rubber hat inches from Courtney's face. "And you'll risk elimination. You sure?"

"Oh, I'm sure." Courtney finished, with a raise of an eyebrow. "I've seen the other team, and I don't think any of them will jump."

Gwen raised an eyebrow, mimicking Courtney.

"Thanks."

Courtney ignored the goth's comment, snatched the chicken hat, placed it neatly on her head (making sure her hair was smoothed out under it) and then walked towards the escalator of shame. She held her nose high in the air as it brought her to the bottom.

Drew let out a shuddery sigh. "I'll go next, I guess."

_Confessional_

"I hate everyone." Drew deadpanned.

_End confessional_

The shortest boy on the team dragged his own feet to the edge of the cliff reluctantly. He peered down over the cliff, and looked just as afraid as everyone who jumped previously.

"Jump, dude!" he heard Tyler shout from the bottom, standing on the boat. Drew sighed in defeat, and jumped, screaming (a very high pitched scream) the entire way down.

Once he hit the safe zone, much to his surprise (and pleasure), he yelled up the cliff. "Regret!"

"Thanks for the words of encouragement!" Drew heard someone shout, but ignored it, and he simply dragged himself to the boat. No one attempted to speak to the small guy, as the blonde shook himself off and seated himself in the corner.

Zeke had no problem with jumping, but unluckily, he had hit a rock on the way down. He screamed as he fell into the safe zone, but he didn't seem too hurt despite hitting his head. The rest of the cast winced, nonetheless.

"I'm okay!" The religious prarie-boy yelled up to the remaining bass, who all sighed in relief. They wouldn't exactly enjoy seeing one of their teammates die on the first challenge, that would just suck. "Be careful to the rest of ya, eh!"

"Alright!" A scrawny redhead yelled from up above.

Said scrawny redhead, Harold, was next. He didn't say a word or scream a scream all the way down, that is, until he landed crotch-first onto the water. The Gophers made a few "ooh"s, but otherwise, the ginger was alright. But that fact didn't muffle the shriek that bellowed out of the scrawny boy's mouth, however.

But, no one could really blame him.

Poor guy.

As Bridgette helped Harold onto the lifeboat, as he narrowly avoided being eaten by a shark, the next contestant who had to jump was none other than

Izzy, who screamed and shouted and, frankly, let it all out. She yelled a few cheers before landing in the water. Her curled hair was soaked, but that didn't stop her from shaking off like a dog fresh out of a pool.

"Wow, that was great!" Izzy shouted into Bridgette's face. The surfer smiled at the rather crazy girl's enthusiasm. "Can I go again?"

"No!" Chris shouted down the cliff.

"Darn it." Izzy snapped her finger in disdain.

_Confessional_

"Izzy needed to jump again, she loves adrenaline! Sometimes, she drinks four energy drinks, and then jumps into the swimming pool at her Aunt Jennifer's house! But, Izzy thinks she killed her cat once," Izzy drawled to herself, not particularly regarding anyone in her confession.

_End confessional_

The last of the Bass was Sadie.

The chinese girl's eyes widened as she approached the edge. Katie escaped the group of Gophers, and ran over to Sadie. She grabbed her best friend's hand and whispered a few words of encouragement, earning groans from her team, and cheers from the Bass.

Heather glared at Katie, which she noticed, but shrugged it off.

"Chris?" Katie asked in a small voice. The host glanced upwards and nodded, signaling her to continue. "Can I jump with Sadie? Will I get the point for my team?"

"Yeah, Chris, please?" Sadie continued for her friend, locking arms and pulling Katie closer.

"Well..." Chris drawled, crossing his arms and thinking. "Ah, fine."

The two girls cheered. Although they weren't on the same team, they jumped together, cheering all the way down. Once together, always together, it seemed.

"Well, Gophers, you guys got your first point. You're up next."

Lyn groaned. "Nooooo..."

"Don't you chicken out on us." Heather snapped, shooting a glare over to the band geek. "I'm not jumping though."

Lyn raised her arms in defense. "Shh, calm down, it's okay."

LeShawna, however, was quite peeved out with what Heather had to say for herself. "And why wouldn't you jump, miss queenie?"

Heather scoffed, turning away from the cliff. "Well, we're on international TV. I'll get my hair wet, duh."

"You've gotta be kidding me." Gwen rolled her eyes, muttering under her breath. Cody raised his eyebrows and laughed through his nose, as did Noah.

"Oh, you're jumpin'!" LeShawna shouted, advancing onto Heather. Heather crossed her arms, unfazed by the african-canadian's threats. "And if you don't jump, I'll make you."

"Says who?"

"Says me, bitch!"

Every single Gopher went silent, except Noah, who let out a single "Wow."

_Confessional_

"Well damn." Noah said, with a raised eyebrow. "Not my problem, though."

_End confessional_

Heather growled at LeShawna, taking a step forward, leaning down to make eye contact. "Okay, ghetto girl, I see how it is. You're just a wannabe rap star, but you're actually unpopular, unlike me."

"Nice comeback, toothpick. Your boobs are the size of bug-bites anyway, at least guys like curvy girls."

This remark shut Heather up instantly. The asian girl cleared her throat, and shoved LeShawna out of the way. She flipped LeShawna off, before she began to retreat. LeShawna, however, would have none of that. So naturally, she mustered some strength, threw Heather over her shoulder, and chucked her off the cliff.

Noah burst out laughing, and so did LeShawna, while everyone just gaped at her in awe. Chris clapped for a few moments, before he checked to see if Heather had been mauled by sharks. But instead, her head of dark hair appeared above of the safe zone.

They could see her middle finger, as well as hear her scream profanities at LeShawna. The dark skinned girl merely shrugged in response.

"I threw you into the safe zone, didn't I?" She paused. "I just hope I can make it too."

The girl jumped, screaming the entire way. But, she landed in the bottom, and shot a smile at Heather, who merely turned away.

_Touchy._

"I-I can't. I'm too scared." Beth started. Lyn stepped forward to the slightly shorter girl.

"It's okay, Beth. I'll go before you?"

Lyn trudged towards the edge. "Uh... Later, that is."

The band geek backed off immediately, and placed herself behind Beth once again. The wannabe looked at Lyn with a bit of gratitude, but not too much, since she was still overrun by her own terror.

Cody stepped forward instead, and jumped off himself, probably trying to impress someone. Instead, he ended up screaming a very high pitched scream (like Drew) all the way down, but his fall involved more limb-flailing and self embarrassment.

Poor guy, always getting the short end of the stick.

When she found that the rest was expecting her to go next, Gwen sighed, and without much complaint, jumped next.

That didn't stop her from screaming at the top of her lungs, though.

Justin followed, and both landed in the safe zone. They were both placed onto the life boat, one after another, with the help of LeShawna. (Justin was almost bitten, but he avoided it, with his well-built arms and swimming skills.)

Beth ended up not being able to jump, much to Lyn's disappointment (because then she'd probably end up chickening too).

Beth was handed the rubber hat, and she sighed, going down the escalator of shame herself. She was the first Gopher to chicken out, but would anyone else do so?

Hm, maybe.

Lyn found herself being the next to jump, much to her displeasure. She looked at the few people behind her (Noah, Justin, Trent, Owen and Lindsay). Trent gave her a thumbs up, even though they hadn't really interacted before.

Lyn sighed in defeat, and shrieked before and while she fell down. She landed in the water with her eyes glued shut. She opened them reluctantly, and after she checked if she was really alive, climbed into the boat. She shivered a bit, but otherwise, she was alright.

Never again.

Lindsay screamed at the top of her lungs, similarly to Lyn, but she managed to land in the safe zone. Although confused, she smiled, and paddled her way over.

Noah sighed to himself. "Life, I hate you, but why must you return this hatred..."

The bookworm threw himself off without much complaint. He emerged from the water, and found that Trent had jumped off at about the same time, because they both locked eyes.

The last person was Owen. Noah and Trent made haste to get as far away from Owen as possible- they both weren't too interested in being crushed by his massive girth. As rude as that sounds.

"C'mon Owen!" Cody shouted, as the two teens crawled onto the life boat (Noah struggling due to lack of upper-body strength).

Trent joined Cody in his supportive cheering, after toweling himself off. "You can do it!"

_Confessional_

"When I saw the dude, I knew there was no way he could jump." Trent laughed to the camera. "I was proven wrong, though."

_End confessional_

_Confessional_

"He looked scared." Lyn sighed. "I was kind of afraid for his safety, to be completely honest."

_End confessional_

_Confessional_

Gwen stared straight into the camera. "When I saw Owen at the top of the cliff pacing, I thought he was going to die."

_End confessional_

Practically mimicking Gwen's previous confessional, Owen's brow furrowed, and he began to breathe heavily in anxiety. "I'm going to die now. I'm going to_ frickin_ die now."

"Just jump, Owen!" Heather screeched from the bottom of the cliff, clearly pissed off. Owen sighed deeply.

He backed up.

Two steps back.

Another three steps back.

One step forward.

He ran.

He jumped.

He screamed.

_Splash._

The splash that Owen made was quite frankly the largest splash anyone on the island had ever seen. It soaked the entire cast, the crew, the cameramen, the stylists, the deer in the woods. Everyone was wet by the end of that adventure.

Owen himself washed ashore like a beached whale, pant-less and confused.

"I... did it?"

The Gophers cheered to themselves, Cody giving Noah a high five, Beth hugging Lindsay.

Chris appeared suddenly at the beach below, and smirked, staring at a clipboard in his hands. "Congratulations Gophers on winning the first part of the challenge!"

"First part." Noah repeated dryly, a hint of a glare in his tone. This caused Chris to chuckle madly. Drew frowned, as did Heather.

"Yes! That was the first part of the two parts that are in this challenge!" Chris smiled. "Now, the second part. Since the Gophers win the advantage, they win these wheelbarrows to bring these crates," he paused to point to the wooden crates over on the other side of the beach, "thatta way."

He pointed towards the camp that was a good quarter-mile away. The bass physically groaned (well, Duncan, Drew and Eva), while the entirety of the Gophers cheered.

"Get to it, now!"

* * *

Lyn groaned as she attempted to drag the wheelbarrow by herself across the beach.

She had only been dragging it for twenty seven seconds. Twenty seven. And she was already having issues- Damn her lack of physical activity. If not for that, she would have no issues.

"I'm having issues." Lyn muttered to herself.

The girl sighed in relief, however, when Katie offered to help her bring it.

"I can help you!" The twin smiled. Lyn grinned.

"Thanks, Katie!"

Katie smiled warmly back. Noah managed to slide his way across the beach quite easily, dragging one with Lindsay.

Lyn watched as Noah did so.

They all decided to sing show tunes together- teamwork, it brings a tear to the eye.

The Bass, however, had issues with the crates. More issues than the Gophers, that's for sure.

"Push harder." Eva grunted to Sadie as the latter pushed with all of her might. Sadie was strong, too, but she was kind of annoyed at the Gophers for winning.

She glared out of the corner of her eye at Courtney, who seemed to try to lead the team.

"C'mon guys, hup to it." The C.I.T ordered, earning an annoyed look from Ezekiel and Geoff. The latter was surprised he would get annoyed, since no one was usually able to harsh his mellow. Maybe the competition was getting to him. The former, however, was already used to farmwork, so having someone order him around wasn't exactly his ideal way to spend the day.

"I think we're doin' just fine, eh." Zeke muttered, pushing the crate with little struggle. He was small, but strong.

Courtney looked relatively flushed. "W-well, I have camping experience."

"I have farming experience."

"I am a C.I.T!"

_Confessional_

"I am a C.I.T!" Drew mocked (sounding a bit like Gilbert Gottfried), his face contorted in a mocking-way.

_End confessional_

"I work out on fields and push things all the time, miss."

Courtney glared at the homeschooler, and pouted, stomping away.

Duncan nudged Ezekiel in the side with his elbow. "Way to shake off chicken head, dude."

"The name's Zeke, not dude." Zeke innocently corrected, unaware of the way Duncan phrased himself, causing said punk to laugh. He called Zeke a dork, laughing a bit, before walking away. He didn't really have time for those who had zero social skills whatsoever.

Zeke was confused at Duncan's actions, but nonetheless continued to push. He wanted to win for his team.

He was pulled out of school for a reason. He didn't get along with kids too well, so during this competition, he planned to make himself somewhat worthy, even if he lacked social skills to boot.

He just needed to keep his mouth shut.

It didn't work.

* * *

When the Gophers finally saw the Bass arrive at camp, Chris smiled and waved them over. After about thirty seconds, the Bass had finally arrived to the cabins. Chris was cued to began to announce the rules for the next challenge.

"Well guys, you finally came here! Not too shabby on the timing, by the way." He winked at the Bass team, who retorted with death-stares. Chris shook it off nonchalantly.

"Well, open the crates already." Heather snapped at her team, none of which acknowledged her.

Courtney crossed her arms and barked from the Bass team. "What do we open it with? There aren't any box cutters."

She rolled her eyes, along with Sadie. Sadie easily stuck by Courtney's side since she joined the team, and when the CIT comforted her.

"That's easy!" Chris smiled. "Use your teeth."

"How the hell?" Drew snapped. He seemed to not want to waste time.

Meh.

Chris shrugged. "Figure it out for yourself. Now, if you excuse me, I'll be with my lemonade," he paused, "thattaway."

Gwen grumbled under her breath. Of course Chris would do that. They had only known him for two days and the entirety of the camp already knew that Chris was going to be a complete and utter jackass to them every single day.

But, that was the point of the competition. Izzy seemed to realize this first, because on the Bass side, she smirked to herself, and began tugging on the box with her mouth. Tyler followed, doing it on a different crate.

The Gophers muttered amongst themselves, and they managed to force Justin to open them with his mouth.

"Ah! My perfect pearly whites!" Justin exclaimed, when he lightly pressed his teeth on the crate.

"Dammit, Justin." LeShawna sighed. She did think he was the sexiest piece o' ass on the island, but if it really caused him to not participate, she would be pretty angry about that. "Suck it up and help us."

"I might chip a nail, I just had them done." The teen glanced at his perfectly moisturized hands. "And risking dirt under my cuticles could be big bucks for me."

Trent audibly groaned and took over, since Justin was going to be absolutely hopeless. "Go sit over there then, dude."

Justin whimpered to himself, whipping out a compact mirror to detect any damage to his million dollar mouth. He must've spent a fortune on that face.

It was only a matter of time before his obsession with looks would bite himself in his firm rump.

Disturbing image aside, the teams moved along quite nicely for having a time-limit on their challenge. The Gophers were doing significantly better than the bass, to be honest.

"Pass me the hammer, please!" was how they interacted with each other. It was much more civil than the Bass.

Little did the Gophers know that the further the competition would go along, the worse and worse they would behave towards each other.

"Well, since _Botox_ is sitting this one out, I'm going to attempt to put the engine together." Noah suggested to his team. They let him do so, but had Cody join him to help.

"Pff." Lyn snorted at Noah's joke. "I'll go fetch some water. Lindsey, wanna come?"

The blonde who was currently twirling some hair in between her fingers' eyes glanced upwards. The blue-eyed blonde stared up at Lyn with a confused expression on her face.

Lyn sighed. "Come with me to get water?"

"Oh, alright!"

When the two girls trailed off, LeShawna decided to take this opportunity to approach Heather. After their little fight at the top of the cliff, she decided to apologize.

The better person was always to do so first, especially if it was their wrongdoing. And since they were both in the wrong, the former decided to take this opportunity to make herself look good (on TV).

Thanks to Trent (no one else wanted to, really), the crates had opened. The Bass crates had been put together a bit beforehand, because of Izzy.

Izzy had gotten a bit of a rope-burn on her tongue, which she complained about over the course of the challenge. An intern retrieved ice for her, which the crazy girl gratefully accepted.

The hot tubs were coming along nicely. Wood was being stacked next to each other, water was being passed along, but it seemed that the Bass just weren't getting along.

"Give me that!" Tyler shouted at Duncan, who snagged the hammer out of the jock's hands.

Duncan sneered. "No way, loser. I can work with mechanics."

"Dude, I have great athletic skills. Let me do it."

"I am a C.I.T, so naturally, I should be the one to lead."

The two teen boys turned around. "That's not even what this is about!"

Sadie decided to step up and snag it, attempting to hammer the hot tub together. She knocked a few of the wooden planks down in her attempts. Sighing, she sat down on the ground, dejected.

"You tried." Izzy said, patting the chubbier girl's shoulder in sympathy. She smiled.

Sadie turned to Tyler, a soft smile on her face. She placed a hand on the Jock's shoulder. "Let's have Duncan try, okay? No one's mad."

The jock crossed his arms, causing his oversized jacket to wrinkle quite a bit, and grumbled. "Fine."

Directly after Duncan retrieved the hammer from the ground (much to Tyler's displeasure), he jammed his thumb with it, cursing many, many times.

"This challenge is shit." The punk declared, throwing the hammer to the ground. Geoff attempted to pick it up and give it a go himself, but Eva barked at him, causing the party guy to back away slowly.

The Bass were failing miserably at this point.

_Confessional_

"Our team is ridiculous." Sadie sighed, now donning a black hoodie. "If we can't get along, we'll lose! And I'll risk being separated from Katie for good!"

Sadie wiped her eyes, and tried to hold back her tears. She stopped herself, and sighed once again.

_End confessional_

"Damn!" Drew shouted, kicking the side of the hot tub. It wobbled, but didn't collapse entirely.

"Uh, what are we going to do?" Bridgette asked her team. "We can't lose this."

Geoff walked over to comfort her. "It's obvious what's gonna happen, dudette."

The surfer raised an eyebrow at the nickname Geoff gave her. "Uh..."

Izzy cackled to break the silence, earning some funny looks.

"Uh, guys! Chris will be back any minute!" DJ panicked. "Our hot-tub is terrible!"

No, really?

"Speak of the devil." Duncan seethed, as Chris approached the team.

"Time's up!" The host shouted. "Let's see the results."

The Gophers' hot tub functioned beautifully. Bubbles, water, it was put together neatly due to teamwork. Well, excluding Justin, who merely sat there the entire time staring at himself in the mirror.

"Well this is just sad." The host said. "I think it's obvious who the winners are."

The bass team hung their heads in shame and trudged to the mess hall, where they were expected to "enjoy" their next meal. Each teammate entered quietly, while the Gophers celebrated their victory with snacks later that evening.

"Well, who should we vote off?" DJ asked his team, nervous about the answer. He knew well enough that he had the rubber hat on his head, and he wasn't exactly the luckiest boy on the planet, to be blunt.

Duncan smirked. "I say we get rid of bossy chicken girl."

"Ha!" Drew laughed. "Well said."

"Can it, short-stack." Eva barked. She wasn't over their conflict that morning. Drew shrugged to himself, going back to his slop.

Courtney gasped loudly, grabbing the attention of some of the Gophers. "E-Excuse me? Why not him?!" She pointed at DJ in her defense.

DJ gulped, but stopped feeling nervous as Duncan dragged attention off of him.

Courtney pointed towards Tyler. "W-well, what about... Him?!"

Lindsay slammed her hands onto the other table, grabbing the attention of the entire room. "NOO!"

Lyn wheezed to herself, in her attempt to laugh.

She realized what she did, and sat down, face turning red. "N-no salt... Bummer... Haha..."

"Nice save." Noah drawled. The bookworm turned to Cody to start a soft conversation. They decided to stand up and dump the remains of their food into the trash, where it belonged.

At the Bass table in the mess hall, Ezekiel huffed. "It's the girls, eh. I don't get why we lost. The other team has lots of 'em, while we have more guys."

Bridgette raised her eyebrows in surprise, appalled at the homeschooler. "Um, excuse me?! I jumped off the cliff first, I'm tougher than you are!"

That was the first time any of the campers heard Bridgette say anything above an indoor voice- they were shocked.

Eva, on the other hand, decided to defend herself physically instead of verbally. She shoved Zeke off of his log, onto the floor, where he was sprawled out. "Would you like to say that again," she paused, inching closer, "to my face?"

Ezekiel shook his head back and forth vigorously, wordlessly. Sadie's food slipped out of her mouth in surprise, and Izzy's eyes just widened.

"I-I'm sorry!" He managed to squeak out. "I don't know what I'm saying! Don't hurt me, eh!"

The scraggly male was left alone on the floor after Eva stalked away from him. Courtney smirked and stood over him.

"Yeah, you don't." The brunette seethed, voice dripping with venom. She was absolutely sure she was safe now. Courtney smirked to herself, and sat down with a new composure.

Don't tempt fate.

* * *

_Confessional_

Duncan glared at the camera. "Chicken number one and chicken number two are both obvious choices. Sure, Zeke messed up and pissed off half the chicks, but so did chicken number two." He finished, referring to Courtney. "I'm pretty sure which chicken's the obvious choice."

_End confessional_

_Confessional_

"That sexist pig thinks he'll get away with this? Ha. In his dreams." Eva grunted, slipping her vote into the box.

_End confessional_

_Confessional_

Ezekiel looked numb, free of emotion, as he silently slipped his vote into the voting box.

_End confessional_

* * *

Chris's eyes narrowed at the two campers sitting in front of him.

Ezekiel and Courtney.

"And the final marshmallow goes to..."

Courtney's onyx eyes widened, and Ezekiel's blue ones did as well. The latter of the two began to shake in fear. 'No... No... No... No...'

They both began to scoot to the edge of their logs. They were both paranoid - Courtney significantly more paranoid than she had been before. Being in the final two will do that to a person, it seemed.

The other campers slowly leaned in, the females glaring at Ezekiel, and the males looking at Courtney with an air of smugness.

"Ezekiel." Chris stated, flinging the marshmallow at the prarie boy. The boy let out a sigh of relief, catching the marshmallow in his hands.

Courtney abruptly stood up, tears threatening to spill out of her eyes. "What?! You voted for sexist boy? Over me?!"

"Well, yeah," Duncan mocked, chewing on his marshmallow with an air of pride. "You had a pole up your butt the entire challenge- we don't need a team leader."

Drew laughed to himself in his seat.

Courtney shot a sharp glare at Duncan, who merely put his hands up in front of him for defense. She growled.

"I demand a recount!"

Izzy and Sadie glared at Ezekiel, who shrunk into his seat, eating the marshmallow self-consciously.

Chris began to grow impatient with Courtney's sudden outbursts. He called for Chef, as he hoisted her over his shoulder, dragging her to the boat of losers. She began to kick and scream.

The Gophers could hear her from their part of the campground.

Ezekiel muttered a quiet apology to his teammates, before scurrying towards his cabin. No one really knew what to say to him- even the Gophers avoided the poor boy's gaze.

It would be hard. It would be annoying.

It would be a long, long three days.

* * *

"Ahh, this is the life," Lyn smiled, reclining in the hot tub. "I could get used to this."

"You've got that right," Cody laughed, attempting to wrap his arm around Gwen's shoulders. The goth shot up immediately, and moved to the other side of the container. The geek sighed to himself in defeat.

The awkward silence was interrupted by LeShawna.

"Well, what are you waiting for?! Let's dance!"

* * *

_Lame chapter is lame. Your feedback is welcomed! :)  
_

_On a brighter note, we have our first eliminated contestant! I want to make sure the elimination order is very different, so plot elements will work out differently._

_I have absolutely nothing against Courtney- this is for plot reasons only._

_Being a Gopher-centric story, I apologize for any later blandness from the Bass side._

_Out: Courtney_


End file.
